MP Pensions Off the Radar

Wed, 05/23/2012 - 11:57 — admin

MP Pensions Off the Radar
Cape Breton Post April 5 2012

Yesterday’s federal budget was mostly devoid of MP pension reform. Perhaps MP pay and benefits should be linked to the unpredictable performance of the free market. That would truly test MP’s faith in our economic system. In any case, I’m sure MPs will choose the safety and comfort of the current publicly-subsidized remuneration policy. At the very least, retired or defeated MPs might reasonably be entitled to a pension based on a vastly higher contribution rate that the current 5 to 23 percent.

Colin Busby of the C.D. Howe Institute once wrote of EI benefits, “…providing [EI] to the self-employed is a “moral hazard” destined to “create conditions that increase the likelihood of [their] collecting benefits.” Perhaps we can apply the same logic to MPs whose pensions are heavily subsidized by us. This is nothing but an elite sub-culture of dependency.

Like professional athletes who use the flimsy excuse of a short career to justify their huge salaries; why is it assumed that unemployed MPs deserve more than a place in the EI line? They can start over again like anyone else.